looduskalender.ee

Plenty of snow, and more comes down - a miraculous winter. Moving quietly on wide cross-country skis in a great forest is like a fairytale.
The pine marten is closely tied to forests, preferring old, somewhat ragged conifer or mixed forests; it only comes out on open ground when hunting for prey. This year there are plenty of marten tracks. The tracks go from tree to tree - and disappear: martens can jump between trees. This inquisitive, solitary-living predator is mostly active in night-time; the day is spent asleep in a tree hollow or other sheltered place.

This winter martens move a great deal during daytime, and spend the night dug down in the snow – much warmer than in a tree hollow.
The marten’s tracks are diffuse, since the pads of the paws are hair-covered. This winter the traces that its body leaves on moving in the powdery snow actually show more. The pine marten’s fur has no winter “camouflage colour”; it looks as in Arne’s photo